First tests with my Quad

So today I finished building my first quadricopter based on APM+Oilpan and running ArduPiratesNG. I did some preliminary tests inside with no intention of flying the thing in my kitchen but just to get a feel of how it behaves up to the moment it actually would take off.

 

I noticed a couple of things:

  • Motors don't start to spin all at once. I saw a couple of posts here discussing that and everyone seem to agree it's normal.
  • Motors make strange noises (can be heard in the video)
  • The quad only begins to feel light on the ground at 75% throttle. I'm using 10x4.7 props, maybe they are too small for the quad's weight, which I can only say is heavy because I don't have a scale :P

This is my first quad and I have no background flying RC Helis (beside crashing one on first flight and giving up on it a couple of years ago) so with the money and time invested in this quad I'm kind of afraid to fly it for the first time :P

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Comments

  • Where did you find the new landing gear and battery pack there's nothing on their half working website?
  • Moderator

    I'd recommend you mount your Xbee antenna upside down, as if you crash, like I did, when the copter flipped, it landed on the antenna and damaged the Xbee module.

     

    I have a Hexa from RC.Carbon.  I broke the landing gear after a crash from 2m.

     

    I'm expecting their V2 landing gear tomorrow I will take a photo and upload, the new landing gear looks alot stronger.

     

    Also getting their twin battery pack mount arriving tomorrow too.

  • Your motors sound like mine (lots of crackles) I've never had any problems flying with them.

    I found this Microcopter guide to first flights/training very good coming from a similar background (fixed wing rc experience but no heli/rotor experience)

    http://www.mikrokopter.com/ucwiki/en/FlightSchool

    Paul
  • well i should say it in another way: the bullet connectors and motor clicking are an arducopter ESC/motor issue, nothing else

     

    your second post is correct, i didn't saw that before

    sorry ;)

  • Distributor
    chill out guys... he must had a bad day... :)
  • I don't understand why @Sebastian says that Dany's advices are completely wrong...
    @François...Luck in your first flight!
  • @Sebastian What wrong information did Dany gave?

     

    Also, I tested it again this morning with 12x3.8 props and it started feeling light at about 45-50% throttle, so I guess I won't use the 10x4.7 ones considering that I also have a camera mount and a GoPro HD that I'll attach to it once I'm confortable flying it.

  • Dany: bullet connectors failures and motor clicking issues are correct for standard arducopter hardware, but completely wrong for non arducopter hardware (like here)

     

    your motors sound ok to me, you should use bigger propellers if you have 75% throttle for take off, that's too much

     

    for the first flight: fly outside and don't worry about flying at least 1.50m high, it's safer than flying only 0.50m high

  • Distributor

    There is the famous Old Mike Man tread over there with tons of posts and links to balance things out...

    http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1006721

    Video for the blades:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N02NHYrpA0g&feature=player_embed...!

    could not find the video for the motors... it involves listening to them and applying tape to it to balance... trial and error and good ears...

     

  • The landing gear came with the frame, but it can also be purchased seperatly. I got it from rc-carbon.com. But I kind of have mixed feelings about my experience with them. The frame is nice overral, but on one of the arms there is two sets of holes drilled like they drilled at the wrong place and just started again a couple of millimeters away, the new holes didn't event line up so I had to enlarge one. Considering the price paid for this frame I would have expected they don't ship parts like this. So I contacted them, they said they would ship me a new arm but its been three week, I sent them two emails one week apart to check if they had shipped it and I get no answer.

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